Reflective Essay On Food Log

From a young age, my parents have always enforced the idea of eating healthy constantly badgering me to eat my vegetables or have a piece of protein with my meals. Although I might not have understood why their reprimanding was important, over the course of these last few weeks in biology I have come to realize that having a sound diet in many ways encompasses what it means to be healthy and live life to its fullest. By actively moderating, recording, and learning about what I have been eating I can now clearly understand that my parents were right to encourage healthy eating in my home. My parent, specifically my mother, was always the one who cooked and influenced my healthy eating at a young age. When looking at my food logs for this …show more content…
However, more often than not most people myself included, do not comply with, and often exceed the recommended maximum amount. Moreover, the food logs provide an oversimplified picture of my nutritional intake. One important thing I observed from my food logs is while I am exceeding the daily recommend amount of calories, I am not meeting my nutritional needs. For example, I am not getting a sufficient amount of dairy, protein, or calcium; strangely, I do enjoy eating these foods. After doing some research, I discovered strategies to deal with this problem. For instance, according to peta.org, one can replace regular dairy milk with rice or soymilk. In my food logs, while this alternative would not count toward a dairy product, it would, however, provide me a good source of calcium and protein. Another area of concern I evaluated from my food logs was a lack of fruits and vegetables. The results did not come as a surprise to me, on account that I have always struggled with eating an adequate amount of both categories. I often find the taste of vegetables unappealing, which is why I made my behavior change for the semester related to this